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Section 1: The Context and Purpose of Workforce Plus

Our aims, the progress we have made, and the challenges remaining

The Executive's Partnership for a Better Scotland makes it clear that growing the economy is our top priority and commits us to Closing the Opportunity Gap. We aim to prevent individuals and families from falling into poverty, provide them with routes out of poverty, and sustain them in a lifestyle free of poverty.

We believe that, for most people and their families, work is the surest way out of poverty. It increases independence from government, encourages self reliance and builds confidence. That is why the first of our Closing the Opportunity Gap objectives is to increase the chances of sustained employment for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups - in order to lift them permanently out of poverty. We also believe, as is made clear in A Smart, Successful Scotland, that tackling poverty, disadvantage and economic growth go hand in hand. This is also reflected in our Regeneration Policy Statement. If worklessness and poverty are not properly tackled, they will act as a brake on economic growth and the potential contribution to the economy of those who are currently inactive will remain untapped.

No one should be denied opportunities because of their race or ethnicity, their disability, their gender or sexual orientation, their age or religion. This principle underpins the Executive's commitment to ensure better service provision and greater equality of opportunity for all of Scotland's people.

The outcomes of our new S ustainability Strategy for Scotland include raising the well-being of Scotland's people by increasing economic opportunities for all to participate in and benefit from the on-going economic activity within Scotland. It must generate sufficient opportunities so that our commitment to full employment in Scotland - in the modern sense of high and stable levels of employment, through the promotion of employment opportunities for all - can be achieved.

"Employability" encompasses all the things that enable people to increase their chances of getting a job, staying in, and progressing further, in work. For each individual, there will be different reasons why they are not achieving what they would like in employment - perhaps their confidence and motivation, their skills, their health, or where they live compared to where the jobs are available. Helping people to improve their individual employability is key to our aim of moving more people into sustained work.

It is important that we recognise the real progress made in Scotland since 1997. 212,000 more people are in employment. The current level of employment is amongst its highest for a generation - since records began in the 1960s. Our current employment rate of 75.4% and economic activity rate of 79.8% are above UK levels - with the employment rate amongst the highest in the European Union. Economic activity is well above the OECD average and therefore our economic inactivity rate is one of the lowest in the EU. ¹

Table 1

Since 1996/97 there has been a significant decrease in child poverty in Scotland. We have more than halved the number of children in absolute poverty from 370,000 to 160,000 (56% reduction), and reduced relative child poverty by 110,000 (30% reduction).

But we are still faced with significant challenges of economic inactivity - and disadvantage in opportunities for employment. There are 509,000 people in Scotland, excluding students, who are not working, and are not classed as unemployed. Of these, an estimated 168,000 say they would like to work.

Those who are most or more likely to be out of employment include: people with no qualifications (33% of workless people); lone parents (92% of whom are women), people with caring responsibilities; people with disabilities or health problems, in particular, mental health problems; ex-offenders and those with drug problems. Some individuals, for example homeless people, can experience a combination of these barriers. The chances of being out of work increase with age, especially for those who have been out of work for 3 years or more.

The chance of being out of work is also affected by where you live. Some neighbourhoods suffer particularly low employment rates which may indicate that just living in that area may affect your chances of getting into work. Some areas may simply suffer from a lack of job opportunities but many of these areas can be found in, or alongside, locations where there are a large number of jobs. This is particularly visible in city areas such as Glasgow, where 16% of the workless people in Scotland live.

We face a particular challenge for some of Scotland's young people. At any one time, the headline figure shows that up to 35,000 - around one in seven - can be not in education, employment or training ( NEET). The NEET strategy for young people shows that there are many different individual circumstances which the term NEET can represent and that the number of young people who may need additional support in order to progress into the labour market is less than this. Tackling the distinctive challenges they face is key to Scotland's future success and this is why, allied to this Framework, we are launching a separate NEET strategy to reduce the numbers of young people who are NEET by 2008.

The NEET strategy shares many of this Framework's themes about improving access to employability services, developing approaches which centre on the individual's needs, and joining up the work of local agencies. It aims to support young people to move towards employment, and critically, to prevent them becoming NEET in the first place.

In taking forward A Curriculum for Excellence, we are focusing on enabling young people to take a confident, successful and responsible place in society. We will provide a continuum of support for young people from an early age through education and training and into employment.

Workforce Plus is about sharing knowledge and data on the workless client groups and helping more of them to take the opportunities for sustained and well paid work. It addresses three groups - those routinely excluded from the labour market; those who are closer to employment but still may need some help; and those in low paid and/or low skilled work.

We need to work with businesses to build the role employers play, both public and private. The Framework aims to benefit businesses by providing a greater choice of potential employees. We also need employers to understand their responsibility in working with us to defeat the problem of worklessness and NEET which has scarred Scotland for far too long. We will work with business through advisory groups, trade unions and others to draw up an action plan to build on the work that the public sector is doing in getting people ready for employment.

We also know that low-paid work is related to low income and poverty. Only 8% of those who are low paid have wages which on their own are sufficient to avoid poverty. Many who work in low paid jobs or are in part time work are supplemented by income from other family members, and benefits such as Working Tax Credits. Part time workers, 80% of whom are women, are more likely to be low paid. In Scotland we have more low paid jobs than the OECD average, but fewer than in the United States. People are more likely to be stuck in low paid, low skilled work in certain types of jobs.

We want everyone who wants to work to have a job. We want people to hold down that job and also to progress in their work. That means building their skills and knowledge so that they can lift themselves from low pay, long hours and poverty. We will report what further reforms we can make to achieve this by the end of 2006.

What Workforce Plus will achieve

We have developed the Framework following discussions by the Cabinet Delivery Group on Closing the Opportunity Gap. The aim of Closing the Opportunity Gap is:

• to prevent individuals or families from falling into poverty;
• to provide routes out of poverty for individuals and families; and
• to sustain individuals or families in a lifestyle free of poverty.

A number of objectives and targets were announced in 2004, one of which - Target A - aims to increase the chances of sustained employment for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in order to lift them out of poverty.

Local employment partnerships in seven key local authority areas have been asked to set targets to reduce the number of workless people dependent on DWP benefits. The seven areas chosen are Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, Dundee, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire. All of the areas chosen have high levels of benefit claimants so tackling these areas will make a large impact on benefit dependency and will increase employment in Scotland as a whole. As a result, the seven key areas have agreed:

• by 2010, to help 66,000 people move off working-age benefits. This is the sum of local targets agreed with the seven areas, and represents a 26% reduction in benefit claimants in those areas.

We have worked closely with local partnerships in each of the seven areas to agree this target and to seek their input into the Framework. We aim to use it to start the process of aligning budgets in the local areas to ensure more effective use of the considerable resources currently invested in 'employability' provision. This will be designed to provide more coherent provision with a clear focus on sustained work for disadvantaged groups. Improving this local dimension has been identified as critical by many people involved in putting the Framework together.

While Workforce Plus actions are targeted initially towards these seven local government areas, the development of their action plans and the lessons learned from these local areas will help all other areas across Scotland to plan and develop a coherent range of services which will meet the needs of their local labour market.

Workforce Plus also sets out a number of actions at national level to support the achievement of those targets and to support local delivery of employability services across Scotland.

Working with the UK Government

'I welcome the Scottish Executive's lead in developing Workforce Plus and their plans to reduce further the numbers of people on benefits by 66,000. Not only will this be of great benefit to Scotland but it is also an essential component of our aim to achieve 80% employment and end child poverty by 2020. I also welcome the commitment of national and local partners to work together to achieve this ambition'. Jim Murphy MP, Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reforms

The Scottish Executive shares the UK Government agenda, and works closely with them in relation to helping more people to find work as a route out of poverty. The Scottish Executive will work with the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) and Jobcentre Plus Scotland to develop jointly owned targets to get people (especially disadvantaged groups) into sustained employment.

We have a shared target to eradicate child poverty by 2020. We will, by March 2008, increase by 15,000 the number of parents from disadvantaged areas and groups entering or moving towards employment, by removing childcare barriers, thus supporting the UK target of 70% of lone parents being in employment by 2010.

We share the UK long-term aim to achieve 80% employment. We are as close to full employment as we have been for decades. But we want to be more ambitious - and we need to be if we are to sustain an ageing population. Although the number of working age people and the nature of the labour market are both bound to change over the next 20 years, in today's terms, an 80% employment rate for Scotland would mean an estimated additional 167,000 people in work. So 66,000 more people off key benefits by 2010 will mark significant progress towards our aspiration for 2025.

We will work with the UK Government on its proposals in the Green Paper A new deal for welfare: Empowering people to work. The UK Government is responsible for simplifying the benefits system, enabling more people to grasp the opportunities for work, whilst providing support and care for those who need them. The Executive's responsibilities relate in particular to three areas of the Green Paper.

First, our health policies and programmes will help build in Scotland the comprehensive package of health-related support - including mental health - for those already in work, in danger of falling out of work, or wanting to work again. We will help build on the Pathways to Work pilots in Scotland - currently operating in Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Argyll and Bute, Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire - as it is rolled out across the country by 2008. We will continue to work to ensure effective linking up of service provision and effective prioritisation of the employability agenda within the health sector in Scotland.

Secondly, we will work closely with the UK Government to plan and implement the pilots to reduce worklessness in cities. The aims of the city strategy and Workforce Plus are complementary particularly in encouraging joined up services, and producing better outcomes for people who are out of work. Any city strategy pilot partnerships in Scotland will need to include the key agencies also identified in Workforce Plus.

Thirdly, the proposals in the Green Paper will encourage and reward lone parents for activities which prepare them for work. The Executive will support this with our policies on chilcare provision, and education and skills.

We have also signed a Partnership Accord with the Department for Work and Pensions, Jobcentre Plus, and COSLA to support the most disadvantaged people into employment. Under the Accord, local agreements will be drawn up across Scotland to increase the employment rates and skill levels of the most disadvantaged. Workforce Plus will further drive and develop this work in the areas of highest economic inactivity. Correspondingly, we aim to bring NHSScotland, Communities Scotland and the Enterprise Networks into the Accord and explore the role that education and skills bodies, such as learndirect scotland, can play in supporting the Accord.

Action for Workforce Plus at a national level

While the UK Government is responsible for employment and benefits, there are many aspects of the Executive's responsibilities which have a crucial impact on individuals' employability. We aim to make employability a core part of our policy making, particularly in the following areas.

Health

We have established the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives. Its responsibilities will include a number of employability pilots operated with the UK Government, providing advice in health settings, and supporting the development of the occupational health workforce. It will also provide advice to businesses on health and wellbeing issues, recognising the contribution made by business to improving health and providing a gateway into occupational health and rehabilitation services.

We will work with the UK Government to plan in Scotland the components of the occupational health strategy Health, Work and Wellbeing.

Mental Health

Our National Programme for Improving Mental Health & Well-being aims to do as its title says and improve the quality of life for people experiencing mental health problems and mental illness. We will shortly publish With Work in Mind: Mental Health, Employment and Working Lives - the evidence base for change in Scotland about the size and nature of the workless client group of people with experience of mental health problems. We are already pioneering Mental Health in the Workplace Training. Over the next three years, 300 instructors will be trained to run Scottish Mental Health First Aid Training Courses all over Scotland.

We will develop and publish commissioning guidance to assist local authorities, health boards and the voluntary sector in developing services around mental health and employability in Scotland. We are currently funding a national demonstration project on employability support and job retention for people with mental health problems, with NHS Fife and Fife Council acting as exemplar employers. Following the end of the pilot in July 2007, we will build the lessons into mainstream practice with other local authorities and health boards across Scotland.

Learning Disabilities

We have published and begun to take forward the employment-related recommendations of our review of services for people with learning disabilities, Working for a Change? We published the research report " Go for it!" in June 2005 which highlights best practice and the benefits of employing someone with a learning disability. We have asked local authorities to detail progress on the employment of people with a learning disability, as part of the Learning Disability Partnerships in Practice agreements for 2004-07. We will ensure that this work is taken forward as part of the national and local partnerships arrangements under this framework.

Education and Skills

We recognise the need to ensure that the skills needs of Scotland's people are matched with current and future employment opportunities. We will work to align vocational and skills programmes and educational provision with business needs.

Achieving this for the long-term means equipping all of our young people with the skills they need for adult life and work. The NEET strategy describes the way in which this is being achieved at the pre 16 stage. Through developments such as building more effective pathways from school to positive outcomes by enhancing school and college links; creating new Skills for Work vocational options and undertaking a review of the curriculum to create a greater focus on personalisation and choice in learning, our education system is working to improve the employability of all our young people.

Determined to Succeed, our strategy for Enterprise in Education, is about better preparing young people for the world of work by instilling in them a culture of enterprise and ambition. Its four themes are enterprising teaching and learning; entrepreneurial activities; work-based vocational learning; and appropriately focused career education. At its heart are effective, mutually productive partnerships between the education community and Scotland's employers.

Scotland's Further and Higher Education sectors play a crucial role in giving the people the skills they need to gain and progress in employment. We are committed to ensuring that everyone has the chance to learn, regardless of their background or personal circumstances. The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council targets funding specifically towards widening access to both further and higher education and we have published targets on wider access. Scotland's colleges open their doors to a wide range of learners. 30% of activity in 2003-04 was undertaken by students from the most deprived areas. The Funding Council's recent report, Learning for All, recommends a programme of action for learning to play its part in tackling inequalities. It will seek to align programmes activity to the problems faced by the most deprived areas, the widening education gap faced by men, and improving retention and achievement rates.

Effective and confident literacy and numeracy skills contribute to closing the opportunity gap in Scotland, including equipping people to fulfil their employability. By 2008, we will have invested £65 million through community learning and development strategies. From 2001 to 2005, over 100,000 new literacy learners have been supported across Scotland. We have launched the Big Plus awareness raising campaign, and the Big Plus for Business toolkit to raise employer awareness of workplace literacy and to encourage their staff in developing these skills. And we have recognised that skills in using a computer are standard for all - that is why the universal offer for Individual Learning Accounts targets ICT skills.

We have also put in place, with Jobcentre Plus and other agencies, practical arrangements to target people looking for work, and who have low literacy and numeracy skills, and we will monitor their progress. We have recently consulted on a national strategy to meet the growing demand for English for speakers of other languages ( ESOL) and aim to publish our strategy in 2006.

Scottish Enterprise, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise together invest around £15 million a year, working with Jobcentre Plus, in vocational training for people with short to medium term employment goals. The Training for Work programme was re-engineered during 2004-05 to become more vocationally focused, with improved job outcome achievements.

learndirect scotland has built expertise in how to engage people who are far from learning, often by involving them in learning at a local level. It has established a network of 500 learning centres across Scotland, building up experience of attracting young people into learning centres and encouraging different forms of learning ( e.g. based on computer games) to broaden access to learning.

In the light of the lessons learned while developing Workforce Plus we will review the current range of education and skills programmes related to employment available in Scotland, to check that they are well aligned and, meet the needs of individuals and employers. We shall also consider how these are marketed to their target audiences. Included in this review will be programmes funded by the Department for Work and Pensions/Jobcentre Plus, the Executive, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Funding Council, and Communities Scotland.

Childcare

The Scottish Childcare Strategy aims to provide affordable, accessible, good quality childcare in every neighbourhood, supported by Childcare strategy funding from the Executive to local authorities. Childcare has an important role to play in labour market growth and family prosperity by helping people back into work or training as well as supporting childcare businesses. Our Working for Families programme supplements these with further support for parents in disadvantaged areas and groups. It is supplemented by the childcare element of working tax credit for those on a low income to get the affordable and flexible childcare they require.

Advice and information about money management and debt

Everyone considering and making the transition from benefits to employment values independent advice about how to manage their household finances including any debts. The Executive already provides £5 million a year for money advice services. We are also funding projects exploring how advice can support successful transitions to work. We are studying the outcomes of these and the findings of recent research on advising disadvantaged groups and will ensure that good practice is replicated widely in both employability and advice services.

Regeneration

Our Regeneration Policy Statement announced in February 2006 is clear that regeneration is about growing the economy and tackling poverty and disadvantage. It therefore emphasises the importance of linking opportunity and need and of securing employability benefits from investment in regeneration. This requires effective joint working between agencies as Scottish Enterprise/Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Communities Scotland, local authorities and other local partners and delivery agents. This will be especially important for our national regeneration priority (the Clyde Corridor and Clyde Gateway) and for our regional regeneration priorities (Ayrshire and Inverclyde).

We are investing around £50 million over the next three years through the Community Regeneration Fund ( CRF) to target getting people from Scotland's most deprived neighbourhoods into work. This will be supported by other CRF investment in areas such as health improvement and raising educational attainment.

The Enterprise Networks

Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise have a fundamental role to play in three aspects needed to realise the economic benefits of addressing economic inactivity. First, encouraging successful, growing businesses which place demand on the labour market - something we are helping to achieve through policies including the Framework for Economic Development in Scotland ( FEDS) and A Smart, Successful Scotland. Second, helping to ensure that newly created job opportunities can be effectively linked to local communities - which Scottish Enterprise will be pursuing in its Linking Opportunity and Need ( LOAN) initiative. And third, providing those who are out of work and are motivated and capable of work with the careers guidance and vocational skills needed to move them towards and into the world of work.

Public sector procurement

We will build on the lessons and experience of public benefit for procurement pilots in Raploch, and Glasgow Housing Association, to ensure that public sector investment can deliver better training and employment opportunities for local people. In this context, we will implement the EU directive on sheltered employment.

Social economy

Employability is a key function for many social economy organisations, including social firms and social enterprises. The success of the sector in this area rests with the experience such organisations have of working with their clients, the confidence that they inspire in their clients and the one-to-one support that they are frequently able to offer. Futurebuilders Scotland has already supported many projects in this area. The forthcoming Social Enterprise Strategy for Scotland will build on this work to help create the environment in which social enterprises can flourish.

The Framework, alongside the Social Enterprise Strategy for Scotland, will build on this sucess. By 2007, we aim to have helped 500 social economy organisations through Futurebuilders Scotland to develop their service delivery activities. A key area is creating employment and development opportunities for those furthest from employment.

Volunteering

Volunteering is widely recognised as a potential stepping stone towards sustainable employment, by developing people's confidence and improving their work-related skills. Our recent Volunteering Strategy highlights the important contribution volunteering can make to closing the opportunity gap. Following a successful pilot programme in Lanarkshire, we will, through Volunteer Development Scotland, raise the awareness of volunteering with Jobcentre Plus' clients, and the volunteering opportunities available through the network of Volunteer Centres.

Project Scotland aims to increase the range of young people from the age of 16 to 25 involved in volunteering. The programme provides a unique opportunity for young people to contribute to their community while learning new skills which they can transfer to the world of work.

Criminal Justice

Ex-offenders represent some of the hardest to reach through employability programmes. At national level, we have developed a national strategy and set up the National Advisory Body for the management of offenders. The strategy sets out a range of outcomes for communities, for offenders and for the agencies which work with them. It recognises the important role stable employment can play in reducing an individual's likelihood of re-offending and identifies increased employment prospects as one of its outcomes. We will now expect to see this reflected in the local area plans from the eight Community Justice Authorities which were established in April 2006 under the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005. All of this should promote a more integrated approach to the way key agencies, including local authorities and the Scottish Prison Service, work together to improve the employment training and support opportunities available to ex-offenders. It should also make the necessary links to the related work being done with people who have substance misuse problems.

Homelessness

Our approach to tackling homelessness recognises the importance of employability. We are taking forward the relevant recommendations of the Homelessness Task Force and will continue to promote employability through local authorities' homelessness strategies and take forward lessons learned from the New Futures Fund, the Scottish Homelessness and Employability Network and projects currently being carried out by SBiC and the Foyer Federation.

Ethnic Minority Groups

For people from minority ethnic communities, there is a range of factors which impact on their ability to access employment. They are not a homogenous group, and distinct differences exist in terms of their experiences in education, training and the workforce. Structural inequalities and institutional racism account for a proportion of the employment rate gap for people from minority ethnic communities so in addition to support for the individual, these factors will also need to be addressed. We have therefore established an Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market strategic group. It will develop an action plan to feed into a national strategy on race equality for Scotland in July 2006 and will also work with DWP'S Ethnic Minority Taskforce. We believe that public and private sector leaders should clearly communicate that the inclusion of ethnic minorities at every level of the workforce is not simply an issue of social justice, but is central to Scotland's future productivity and economic growth. Key outcomes will include actions to reduce the difference in employment rates for ethnic minorities and their segregation in employment. It will also target better access for business and financial support services, and the economic integration of new migrants who can face exploitation and employment not appropriate to their skills and experience.

Action at a local level - service delivery

While Workforce Plus includes a range of national policies and initiatives that affect employability, it is local services which are even more crucial to helping people realise their personal capability to work: because different people need different things to help address the individual reasons that they cannot find sustained work. And an effective employability policy has to respond to the needs of the local labour market and local employers, and to build on the local service infrastructure.

Scotland is recognised as having a long history of innovation in employment and employability. Workforce Plus will help to roll out the good practice being developed across the country.

But the evidence presented in the Framework workstreams shows that Scotland can make better use of the £500 million plus per year invested in services which help people's employability, as we face the challenge of helping more people take the opportunities for work.

There are four key areas which Workforce Plus has identified, if we are to get better value from this substantial amount of public investment:

• more people traditionally disadvantaged in the labour market must be drawn into the processes which can help them move towards work;
• the performance of agencies providing training and work experience must be improved;
• there must be improvement in retention and progression rates for those entering employment; and
• the quality of engagement with employers at the local level needs to be improved.

From this evidence, we have identified and modelled six key themes, to help engage, support, and sustain people in work through collaborative services, working with employers, and achieving better performance outcomes. These are set out in section 3.

The Framework also articulates an offer which, collectively, local services should be making to improve outcomes for both individuals and employers. Through Workforce Plus, we are asking local partnerships, for the first time, to take forward this package of measures and actions.

The guidance in this Framework is intended for partnerships in any area of Scotland where there is scope to improve local employability services. But we are prioritising the seven local authority areas so that they can each deliver their part of the 66,000 target by 2010. We will support them with some additional resources from the Closing the Opportunity Gap Fund - £5.6 million in each of the years 2006-07 and 2007-08. And we will work with them to learn the potential lessons for employability services in other areas.

Lessons from New Futures Fund pilots

Much of what we have learned about what works well for both individuals and employers has come from the experience and evaluation of New Futures pilot projects. The pilots have been useful, in particular, for highlighting the importance of engaging and moving individuals on towards work, and the need for individually-focused support, such as through key workers. New Futures provides a model for local partnerships to learn from.

From April 2006, funding for existing New Futures Fund pilots transferred to Community Planning Partnerships ( CPP), as the most effective way of building on the pilots is to make them part of the local service infrastructure. Partnerships will be required to show how they will take this forward, and how the impact of their services on moving more disadvantaged people into work can be measured.

Low-paid, low-skilled workers

The evidence presented to the Framework has shown that, while the majority of low skilled workers earn more than the low pay threshold, increasing an individual's skills can bring financial benefits to them and their employers. Our principle is that those people who can move on to higher paid and/or higher skilled work should be given the timely support to do so.

We believe this can be achieved by better targeting groups of people and sectors of employment which are more prone to having people stuck in low paid, low skilled work. And there are various aspects of current public support which could be changed to make this more successful. Evidence shows that the longer a person is in part-time employment, the lower their wages are likely to be, even if they return to full-time work. Eighty per cent of part-time workers are women and two-thirds of low-paid workers in Scotland are female.

While these conclusions are useful and informative, there is clearly more work to be done in this area than current development has allowed. We will do this as part of the future development of our refreshed Lifelong Learning Strategy. Our ongoing work with trade union learning will form an important part of this.

The remaining sections

The detail of Workforce Plus has been informed and driven by Five Workstreams:

• The Workless Client Group (Chaired by Professor Gill Scott, Caledonian University)
• The Interventions Group (Chaired by Richard Scothorne, Rocket Science UK Ltd)
• The Low Paid/Low Skilled Group (Chaired by John Ramsay, Cogent Sector Skills Council)
• The NEET (not in education, employment or training) Group (Chaired by Eddy Adams and David Smart, Eddy Adams Consulting Ltd)
• The Employment Demand Group (Chaired by Tom Laidlaw, Scottish Gas)

These Workstreams have involved over 150 individuals representing a large number of external organisations and Scottish Executive departments. It is their valuable thinking that has allowed us to develop Workforce Plus.

Annex 1 of this document sets out their remits and Annex 2 summarises the recommendations from each of the workstream groups. Their full reports, membership and recommendations can be found on the Scottish Executive's website at www.scotland.gov.uk/employabilityframework .

The remainder of this Framework sets out

• Intelligence and insight into workless clients (who they are, the barriers they face, the support that they need) and the requirements of employers;
• The principles of design and practice which have underpinned high performance in helping people gain a job and stay in work;
• The promotion and support of effective local partnerships with a requirement to develop joined up approaches in our key labour markets;
• The establishment of a National Workforce Plus Partnership which will support these local partnerships by ensuring that:
• National policies and funding streams are aligned;
• The key national agencies are aligning their services and spend effectively;
• There is real commitment by key strategic leaders to ensuring that in service commission and delivery, effective behaviours in the front line are recognised and rewarded; and
• There is a forum to respond to challenges to some of the funding and flexibility issues that are experienced in the front line
• A clear statement of the outcomes that the Executive wishes to achieve and the level of performance that is expected; and
• The establishment of a Workforce Plus Team that will monitor and review progress, disseminate exceptional performance and influence the direction of policy and funding within the Executive.

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